Spin
Books | Fiction / Science Fiction / Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic
4.1
(147)
Robert Charles Wilson
From the author of Axis and Vortex, the first Hugo Award-winning novel in the environmental apocalyptic Spin Trilogy...One night in October when he was ten years old, Tyler Dupree stood in his back yard and watched the stars go out. They all flared into brilliance at once, then disappeared, replaced by a flat, empty black barrier. He and his best friends, Jason and Diane Lawton, had seen what became known as the Big Blackout. It would shape their lives. The effect is worldwide. The sun is now a featureless disk--a heat source, rather than an astronomical object. The moon is gone, but tides remain. Not only have the world's artificial satellites fallen out of orbit, their recovered remains are pitted and aged, as though they'd been in space far longer than their known lifespans. As Tyler, Jason, and Diane grow up, space probe reveals a bizarre truth: The barrier is artificial, generated by huge alien artifacts. Time is passing faster outside the barrier than inside--more than a hundred million years per day on Earth. At this rate, the death throes of the sun are only about forty years in our future. Jason, now a promising young scientist, devotes his life to working against this slow-moving apocalypse. Diane throws herself into hedonism, marrying a sinister cult leader who's forged a new religion out of the fears of the masses.Earth sends terraforming machines to Mars to let the onrush of time do its work, turning the planet green. Next they send humans...and immediately get back an emissary with thousands of years of stories to tell about the settling of Mars. Then Earth's probes reveal that an identical barrier has appeared around Mars. Jason, desperate, seeds near space with self-replicating machines that will scatter copies of themselves outward from the sun--and report back on what they find. Life on Earth is about to get much, much stranger.At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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More Details:
Author
Robert Charles Wilson
Pages
368
Publisher
Tor Publishing Group
Published Date
2010-07-01
ISBN
1429915439 9781429915434
Ratings
Google: 4.5
Community ReviewsSee all
"It's not something I normally reach for. It's definitely written like a classic sci-fi tale. It was a long read but very interesting and imaginative. I did enjoy the relationships of the characters over the years. The only thing I wish that was explained more was how the future was set up. There was some lack of detail between the time jump, where the past ended, and the future began."
"This book was crazy fascinating.....I love how an author can write of things so complex and make them sound so real. I tried to put myself in the position of Diane, Jason or Tyler and see how I would've felt after seeing the stars disappear from the sky. We really do take things for granted.....just accepting that the stars will be there every night without fail. I found it interesting that humanity as a whole.....chose to leave their morals behind and just do whatever pleased them because the world would be ending soon....so why even try to be a better person? <br/><br/>Jason was an amazing character in the fact that he was so brilliant that he strove to put mankind in a better place.....to give the world another chance to thrive again. He never quit trying and even though he failed, at times, he did not quit. It made for a lonesome life for him....yet he did find the answers he was looking for in the end and to him....that was all that mattered.<br/><br/>Tyler was a great guy.......an average person forced into a role he didn't much care for but did his best to excel in it. He loved Diane from the time they were young and it never faltered thru the whole span of his career and life.....Diane chose a very different path and she struggled because of it.....she was doing something that she didn't really believe in yet she didn't know how to break free.<br/><br/>Space travel.....martians.....time rushing by.....complex human relationships....tragedy.....happiness.......dangerous situations....and the bond of true friendship are the things that encompass the plot of this book. It was a really good book and I would have given it 5 stars but there were a few times when I just zoned out because the scientific terms were just a little to 'above my head' to understand or even care....but otherwise, I was enthralled by the story and how the author made it seem so plausible."